One day a monkey was playing in a tall tree by the river. A mother crocodile and a baby crocodile were swimming in the river.
They swam slowly. Suddenly the mother crocodile saw the monkey “Oh, a monkey! How nice if I have it for my dinner.”
Then she said to her son “My son, do you love me?” “Yes, of course.” The baby crocodile answered. “Well, Can you see that monkey? I want to eat his heart. Can you go and get it for me?” “All right.”
The baby crocodile swam near the river bank. He shouted at the monkey. “Hey, monkey! Would you like some bananas? There are many banana trees over there on the other bank of the river.” “Bananas? Hmm, I like them very much. But I can’t swim. How can I get there?” The monkey said. “Oh, I can carry you there.” “Really? Thank you very much!” The monkey jumped onto the crocodile’s back.
They swam towards the other side of the river. In the middle of the river the crocodile dived into the water. When he came up again, the monkey was wet all over. “Don’t do that again or you’ll kill me!” The monkey shouted. “ I know, but I must do that! Because my mother wants to eat your heart.” “My heart? Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I don’t have it with me, I left it in that tree.” Then we’ll have to go back for it! They swam back.
As soon as they got to the bank, the monkey picked up a big stone and climbed up onto the tree as quickly as he can. He hung himself up in the tree and shouted at the crocodile. “ Don’t you want my heart? Well, catch!” The monkey threw the big stone at the crocodile.
Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."
They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.
"Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg.
"Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.
"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.
"It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.
"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.
"It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.
They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What is the matter?" They said, "We cannot aGREe to what the elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said."
"Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they were all right.
The moral of the story is that there may be some truth to what someone says. Sometimes we can see that truth and sometimes not because they may have different perspective which we may not aGREe too. So, rather than arguing like the blind men, we should say, "Maybe you have your reasons." This way we don’t get in arguments. In Jainism, it is explained that truth can be stated in seven different ways. So, you can see how broad our religion is. It teaches us to be tolerant towards others for their viewpoints. This allows us to live in harmony with the people of different thinking. This is known as the Syadvada, Anekantvad, or the theory of Manifold Predictions.
yes.good.
